Thank You!
May 7th – 14th saw a very special Awareness Week taking over our website and social media feeds, just as CLAPA t-shirts and banners took over parks and cities all over the UK!
Ten Sponsored Walks from Edinburgh to Truro made this the biggest Awareness Week ever – and our Hyde Park walk in London is still to come on Saturday. We also saw hundreds of you putting on or planning events from cake sales to skydives to raise much-needed funds for CLAPA.
We were thrilled to see your response on social media. Over 2,600 of you showed your colours with our Twibbon, hundreds more shared your stories with #MyCleftStory, and thanks to your help our daily posts reached nearly 200,000 people on Facebook alone!
We’re looking forward to hearing all about what you’ve been up to during Awareness Week – even if all you’ve done is share one of our posts or use this week as a chance to tell your story, every little helps us to spread the word. We hope that by starting a conversation about cleft lip and palate we’ve helped to shed a little light on a condition that is still unknown to so many.
We also hope that some of you will have seen the work we do and feel inspired to help us keep going.
CLAPA is a small charity, and while our staff are dedicated, there’s only so much we can do with our limited resources. That’s why we rely on our volunteers and fundraisers to do what we can’t. They are the backbone of CLAPA as an organisation, and we absolutely could not exist without their hard work. Volunteers Week is from 1st-12th June, and we intend to make the most of it to say a huge ‘thank you’ this year!
From sky-divers to Parent & Peer Contacts, local organisers to Council members, our volunteers and fundraisers are at the centre of our support network for people affected by cleft. All around the UK, friends, family and people with cleft are using their spare time to give talks, to organise support groups, put up posters, sit in clinics, mentor young people, represent CLAPA on a national scale, even act as a listening ear for others in need. Sometimes we’re not even sure how they fit it all in!
They fit these activities around other commitments and pitch in however and whenever they can. We don’t expect more than they can give, and we do our best to make sure they’re as well-supported as possible.
How do I start?
Think about what motivates you – do you want to use your experiences to help others like you? Are you great at bringing people together and getting them to support a cause? Do you want to set something up in your local area? Or maybe you want to become an expert and use your story to educate health professionals like midwives at local universities?
Whatever you think will make you want to get up and make a difference, tell us about it!
Do you think you could help us continue our work?
Find out more about volunteering for CLAPA
Find out more about fundraising for CLAPA
If you’re still not convinced, there’s another quick and easy way you can help us to help you – sign up to the CLAPA Community. It takes minutes to fill in the online and join our 20,000 members all over the UK. You’ll only receive information that’s relevant to you and your interests, and we’ll never spam you or contact you about donating. There are no obligations, there will never be any charges, and by joining our community you’ll be kept up to date with all our latest events and opportunities in your area.
Liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter is another quick and easy way to stay up to date.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s Awareness Week as much as we have!
If you have any photos you’d like to share with us, please do submit them using our online form below. They may show up in this year’s CLAPA News!